What Happens in Hearthome, Stays in Hearthome
by funstt
Summary: Dawn and Paul wake up in a hotel room, finding themselves with a wedding certificate and a hangover. They'll have to work together to keep up appearances if they are to maintain their reputations in the public eye. But with all this pretending, it gets harder and harder to identify what's fake and what's real. Ikarishipping
1. Chapter 1

**_Hey guys, I know I still haven't finished 'It Was Always You' but I was watching 'What Happens in Vegas' the other night and decided to base this story on it. There may be some mature content over the chapters so if you do not wish to read that please click the back button on your browser and find another story. Please enjoy._**

A loud, piercing noise pulled her out of her slumber. She was trying to grasp reality, but was having trouble as all she could feel and hear was the thumping in her head.

The noise continued to beep, and she mentally cursed, she hated having her phone on loud while she slept.

Bringing a hand to her hair she slowly sat up on the side of the bed, daring to open her eyes a little bit. This was in vein and she immediately closed her eyes again as the brightness of the light wasn't helping her head feel any better. Lucky for her, the noise stopped leaving her in a peaceful silence.

After a minute her eyes adjusted a little bit and she groggily looked at her surroundings.

This wasn't her room. There were white curtains that were hanging open to leave a beautiful view of the city below her. She could feel the soft carpet on her toes as they skimmed the floor and in front of her she could see big glass joining windows that led to a balcony that was definitely not hers.

"Where am I?" She muttered as she moved her hair out of her face.

Placing her two hands either side of her body she began to push herself off the bed, before cringing and sitting straight back down.

"Way to go Dawn, get yourself a hangover why don't you," she continued to mutter to herself.

"Can you stop talking?" Dawn heard a voice behind her, which if anything, ensured she was completely awake.

Slowly and wearily, she turned on the bed wondering who would possibly be in the room with her.

She was in a double bed, clearly not alone. Dawn was terrified that she had somehow in her drunken haze picked up a random to go home with the night before.

The person in question was completely covered by the doona cover, so she carefully reached over to pull the covers back slowly.

"P-Paul!?" Dawn squeaked, nearly falling off the side of the bed as she jumped back in surprise, "What are you doing here? In bed….with me….oh god this isn't happening. We slept together!? What were you thinking Dawn," She continued to rant to herself, almost forgetting that Paul was still there.

"Stop talking. Now." Paul groaned as he pushed himself up off of the bed, his hand automatically going to rub his temples as he stood.

"Do you remember what happened?" Dawn asked nervously. It wasn't like she was new to sex, but she generally didn't make a habit of going home with people she didn't know well.

In Paul's case, she knew him very well, that wasn't the issue. The problem was that they couldn't stand each other. She had no idea what would possibly possess either of them to…get it on, for lack of a better term.

"Not really," he sighed.

"Neither."

A loud beeping sound was once again heard, and Dawn casually reached for her phone that was on the side table to her left. As she picked it up though, it was soon forgotten as she stared at her hand.

"Oh my god."

"What is it now?"

"Paul….why am I wearing a plastic diamond ring on my ring finger?"

He snorted a laugh before answering, "How should I know?"

He walked into the bathroom connected to their room, leaving Dawn to stare at the bright pink plastic diamond on her finger.

"Maybe we were just joking around," she said aloud, even though Paul was out of earshot.

"Or maybe we accidentally got married," Paul came storming out of the bathroom holding a marriage certificate with both their names.

Dawn stared for a long time. She was literally speechless.

"It can't…I mean we can't…" Dawn stammered as she tried to pull herself together. "This must be some kind of joke."

Paul ran a hand through his hair as he threw the certificate onto the bed in front of him and pulled out his phone.

His expression changed to one of confusion as he stared at his phone before pressing a few buttons and placing a finger over his lips to signal Dawn to be quiet.

"It's a voice message from you," he whispered as they waited to hear it.

"HI PAUL!" A clearly drunk Dawn yelled into the phone.

"Yeah Hi Paul!" A man's voice joined in, Paul groaned at hearing his own voice say hello to himself. He _must_ have been drunk.

"We are just calling to remind us….you.." Dawn said before giggling uncontrollably, "that we are in loooooooove!" The word was drawn out and the present time Paul and Dawn made faces of disgust at the thought of being in love with each other.

"We know you'll forget," slurred Paul, "So we want to remind you guys that we want to be together."

Dawn chimed in at this point, "Forever!"

"Let's do this!" They heard their former drunken selves shout before a few other sounds could be heard which they both presumed were kissing sounds.

"Okay I think we've heard enough of that Paul." Dawn said quickly as she turned to grab her dress from the night before. She was currently wrapped up in the sheet off the bed.

She coughed awkwardly.."Um could you turn…I'm going to change."

He grunted and turned to go into the bathroom, leaving Dawn alone with her thoughts.

She heard the shower begin running and after getting dressed, she pulled out her phone.

Five missed calls from May.

Dawn sighed and hit the call back button. After a few moments of 'ringing', Dawn heard a voice on the other end.

"_Where have you been? I've been so worried!"_

"Hi May, I just had a late night last night is all." Dawn inwardly rolled her eyes at herself; that was understatement of the year.

"_Well I thought we had plans today. I've been waiting for you for an hour at that café you love on the corner of 5__th__and Maine."_

_"_Oh, right…sorry May can we possibly reschedule until tonight, I've gotten caught up with a bit of training with Piplup…I'll call you later."

Dawn hanged up the phone before May could get another word in. She needed to sort out what they were going to do before she did anything else.

Hearing the door open, she turned to see a shirtless Paul walk out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel, his damp hair hanging messily.

She momentarily lose focus as she admired his well-defined physique. His towel was sitting low enough for her to see not only his amazing upper body muscles but also where his abs slowly met the dinted shape of a V at his lower torso.

Dawn was one hundred percent sure that was her favourite part of the male body at that moment.

"Ahem" Paul coughed slightly, and she was sure she was blushing by the time her eyes met his smirking face.

"Like what you see?" He asked arrogantly.

"Pfft in your dreams." She placed her hands on her hips defensively as she continued, "You wish I liked what I saw."

Paul continued to smirk when he noticed Dawn's flushed cheeks.

"Anyway, we need to sort out what we are going to do about this whole marriage thing. Know any lawyers?"

Paul's expression turned serious. "You realise we can't get this annulled right?"

"What do you mean? Of course we can."

"Not if we want our reputations completely destroyed." He continued before Dawn could interrupt, "I'm the Sinnoh Champion and you're a three time grand festival winner who is also a Sinnoh elite four member. Pretty sure the fact that we got drunk and accidentally got married and had sex would destroy both of our careers. People don't want leaders like that."

Dawn sighed as she realised he was right. "Okay…well what do you propose we do then?"

They stood in silence for a little while thinking of ways that could get out of this mess without harming either of them socially or politically.

"Okay, I have an idea," Dawn suggested, "What if we announce to the public that we have been secretly dating for a while now and we decided to elope to surprise our families and friends. Then we give it six months and part amicably. We'll tell the public that we still 'love' each other but we are just better off as friends."

Paul stared at her for a long moment, "That could work."

"Okay well…do we do this then?" She was fidgeting with the hem of her dress as she waited for him to reply. It was a nervous habit she had developer over the years of participating in contests.

She was now 20, while Paul was 22. They were young to be married. But they were also young to have achieved so much between them. It was likely that the public would not take this well anyway.

Paul clicked his tongue against the top of his mouth, "I have an idea. I'm seeing Drew tonight, maybe you could try and convince May to come to Hearthome and we can start with them, then we'll work on the rest."

Dawn nodded at his seemingly good idea, "Actually I'm already seeing May tonight, so that will work perfectly. But first I have to call my mother."

Paul groaned but nodded, he guessed he would have to call Reggie and fill him in too. The guy was always bugging Paul about getting a girlfriend so he was sure this conversation would be full of a Reggie screaming happily into the phone.

"You know, what if we invited them tonight too?" Paul suggested, "We could get it all over at once."

Dawn let out a shaky breath, "Okay…let's try that."

Dawn tried to walk confidently in her new 'good luck' heels that she had bought for herself earlier that day. To say she was nervous was an understatement, she was worried her friends and her mother were going to skin her alive for not telling them about her so called secret relationship. Worst of all was the possibility that they might not buy it. If that happened, they were both screwed.

"C'mon Dawn, you can do this," she had been saying this mantra over and over since she left Paul this morning, she was hoping that giving herself a pep talk would help to get her through this and that everything would be fine.

Her phone beeped and she saw a message from Paul.

"_Where are you? I'm by the tree out front."_

She had just finished typing her message as she came around the corner and saw him.

"It's like you're trying to annoy me by being late," Paul said as he leaned against the tree casually, his hands in his pockets.

"Well it's your own fault for not picking me up. You try walking in heels this high."

"Or maybe you could not wear the heels next time."

"Or maybe next time you could be a gentleman and come and get me first," Dawn said through gritted teach before letting out a sharp breath. "They are never going to believe that we got married willingly."

Paul groaned; he knew she was right. "Okay…let's just try and withstand each other for the next few hours and then we can sort the rest out from there."

She nodded as she took one really deep breath, "Alright. Let's just get this over with."

They walked into the small but well known restaurant. It was pretty packed up considering how popular it was.

Unfortunately for them there were a few paparazzi members near the entrance, obviously waiting for anyone who might be of interest to enter. At first they both were a bit shocked by the sudden flashing.

Luckily for Paul, Dawn took control of the situation as she grabbed Paul's hand in hers and gently leaned up to give him a tender kiss on the cheek whilst pulling their joined hands around the other side of her waist.

If he was shocked by the close contact, he didn't show it. He knew that they both needed to play along in order for this to work. But even he had to admit, Dawn was really good at this.

"Excuse me, Miss Berlitz? Are you and Mr Shinji here on a date?"

She looked over to the photographer posing the question with doe eyes and shyly smiled with a hint of cheekiness saying "No comment."

After that she linked Paul's hand again with her own and led him through the crowd to their reserved table of family and friends.

"Hey guys!" Dawn chirped, "I'm so glad you could make it….Oh I'm sorry, _we're _so glad you could make it."

She was still holding Paul's hand as she led him to the seat next to her at the end of the table.

"Wait a second, what are you two doing here…together…holding hands?" May was utterly confused as to why they were there considering usually they couldn't be around each other without fighting.

"Well…Dawn and I have some news," Paul cut in, hoping to distract May from bombarding Dawn with questions. He paused and nodded slightly at Dawn, giving her the cue to tell them the news.

"We're married now!"

Silence.

Dawn gave Paul a panicked look. If no one believed them they were screwed.

The silence continued until Johanna spoke up, "Well finally! Jeez the way you two look at each other and the way Dawn always talks about you I knew you two were going to get together eventually. I can't believe you two skipped the dating part though."

Paul and Dawn both had looks of utter bewilderment on their faces.

"Oh, well we did date. We've been keeping it under wraps…you know..because…because."

"Because of the media," Paul cut in, "But it is so sweet to hear that all you do is talk about me."

Paul was smirking, and he was being much too cocky for her liking.

"Aw you know I love to talk about you baby cakes," then she put a hand over her mouth blocking what she was saying out from Paul and whispered to the table, "that's my special pet name for him."

He gritted his teeth and changed the subject, "So guys, what do you think?"

It seemed they had all reacted a little slowly to the news.

"I agree with Johanna, it really is about time! Congratulations little bro, I'm so glad you've found yourself an amazing, talented and beautiful wife! I just wish we had have gotten to see you guys get married."

Johanna nodded, "Yes I would have loved to be there. Dawn, where is your ring?"

Dawn mentally stumbled and looked to Paul. Level headed as always chimed in, "Actually we haven't gotten one yet. We got married as a bit of a lucky charm kind of thing. We were at the…arcade last night and I won a prize plastic diamond ring…then…well to be honest I just knew."

Everyone at the table was impressed with such an adorable story. But mostly they were impressed with the fact the Paul just spoke more than a few words for once. Usually the only person he ever really spoke to in lengths was Dawn, and that was only because he drove her mental and spent half his time arguing with her.

May and Drew however were watching the two suspiciously but nevertheless stood up and gave the newlyweds hugs and congratulations.

"Yeah, I would have liked to help you pick your wedding dress Dawn and watch you walk down the aisle." May had stars in her eyes at the thought of a wedding.

She and Drew had yet to even get engaged. The two had only been dating for a year as it had taken all of their journey through Hoenn and Johto and then later Sinnoh and then back through Hoenn for them to realise their feelings for each other.

Paul decided it was the perfect time to get Dawn back for the pet name stunt, "Well I just couldn't wait to be married to Dawn. She's just so beautiful don't you guys think?"

Dawn could tell he was up to something by the sass in his tone, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt him grab her ass with his hand and pull her closer to him, "I can barely keep my hands off her."

Dawn glared at him but then remembered that she would not be able to yell at him until later "that's us, so in love we can't even keep our hands off of each other."

She casually leaned in to him and put her hand on the lower part of his abs. She felt the muscles beneath his shirt move and he growled just quietly enough for only her to hear.

"Well let's eat then," Reggie suggested happily, "We have a lot of celebrating to do after all."

Everyone agreed and started looking through the menu to decide what to order.

"I have an idea," Drew spoke up with a mischievous glimmer in his eye, "Why don't you two order for each other?"

Dawn and Paul glared at the green haired coordinator who just smirked in response. He knew they were faking this. The worst part was that he was enjoying it.

Johanna and Reggie immediately joined in, cooing about how cute it would be to test how well the two knew each other.

Paul, as someone who rarely showed how he was really feeling on his face, cracked and looked at Drew with disbelief. This only made his smirk turn into a triumphant grin to see that he was getting under Paul's skin.

By this time May had decided to join in and egged them on, "Yeah I mean if you guys know each other so well it shouldn't be a problem."

Dawn huffed slightly but broke into a forced grin, realising that there was no way they were going to get out of this.

"Okay why don't I go first then."

Dawn tried to keep a look of 'casual perusal' on her face as she examined the menu, while on inside she was screaming 'what the hell would Paul like to eat'.

The place they were at was pretty fancy, which helped, considering Paul really wasn't a fancy type of guy. He was simple. And luckily, there were only two or three simple things on the menue.

Something clicked in Dawn's head as she suddenly remembered a time when she was traveling through Sinnoh with Ash and Brock way back when.

_A storm had come out of nowhere. Dawn squealed as there was no escaping the rain, she was drenched in a matter of minutes. Ash and Brock had split up from her to go and visit the Veilstone City Mall to get some supplies, while she was headed to the Pokemon Centre._

_She could barely see 10 metres in front of her, so when she finally came across a building she wouldn't have cared it if had been a random's house at that point._

_As she entered she saw that it was a small café full of wooden furniture, with an open fire roaring just a few metres away. She immediately took off her soaked through overcoat and hung it over a chair nearby._

_As she was finally standing in front of the warm fire, she noticed Paul sitting not even a metre from her._

_"__Paul? What are you doing here?"_

_He glanced up from the book he was reading to see the soaking wet blue haired coordinator in front of him._

_"__Troublesome. Same as you I guess."_

_She ignored the nickname he used for her and continued the conversation, "Well…can I sit with you?"_

_He sighed and closed his book._

_"__I'd rather you didn't."_

_Before she could respond, a little old lady had brought over a plate of food, sitting it down in front of Paul, "Here is your order young man, I hope it is cooked well-done to your liking."_

_He nodded politely, saying thank-you. He then nodded to Dawn and pushed the chair out with his feet._

_She gleefully accepted and just as she was about to start talking he glared at her. She knew what it meant. He was being nice enough to let her sit there but not so nice that he was willing to listen to her constant talking._

_She sighed and stared out the window, hoping the storm would end soon._

Dawn bit her lip as she thought back to the memory that felt so long ago, they were only kids then. But lucky for her, she knew exactly what to order for Paul.

"Okay Paul will have a steak because that's his favourite. And he'll have that well-done thankyou, if he sees blood he won't eat it, trust me. Oh and chips and salad on the side please," Dawn grinned at the look on Paul's face and she tenderly placed her hand on his forearm, rubbing her fingers ever so gently over his skin.

Paul was inwardly wondering how the hell she knew what to order for him. He was scrambling in his mind to choose something for Dawn. He had never in his life seen Dawn eat a burger, truthfully all he had ever seen her drink was coffee; it was like she was addicted to the stuff.

In terms of food, though, he had never really sat down with her for a meal. Well, that was except for that one time when he had overhead her send an order back because it had olives – something that she was allergic to.

He smirked as he looked up at the waiter, who had just finished taking Johanna's order. "Dawn will have the Greek salad."

Dawn's eyes went wide as she went to interrupt, "Paul I –"

"I know, I'm getting there. No olives, she's allergic. Oh and for dessert we'll share a Tiramisu with two spoons."

Dawn couldn't help the surprise she was feeling from showing on her face. Neither could Drew, or May.

Paul only smirked and turned his hand around to hold hers over the table.

"Aww you two make a lovely couple," Johanna cooed, clasping her hands together in excitement.

"Have you decided where you're going to live?"

That caught them off guard.

"Umm live?" Dawn questioned.

"Well you're married now; surely you are going to live together?" Johanna persisted.

"Oh right, we are going apartment shopping tomorrow actually. We couldn't decide between either of our own so we thought it would be nice to start fresh."

"Yeah," Dawn said. It was about all she could muster.

"So tell us how this happened," May chimed in, clearly on the same page as Drew now. She had a cheeky look on her face as she poked her tongue out at Dawn.

"Well…it's actually a funny story," Dawn began. She looked briefly at Paul to see if he was going to help her but he avoided her gaze, he clearly wasn't getting involved in this one.

"You see," She continued nervously, "As you all know…Paul and I didn't always get along." After a brief pause and a nod from her mother she found the courage to continue, "We used to argue a lot…in fact we still do argue a lot."

The group laughed at that which Dawn found encouraging enough. It seemed as though they were actually going to get away with this.

"And so this one day about 6 months ago, we saw each other at Paul's Champion Induction Ceremony. This was the one just for the Elite; it was kind of like a small announcement ceremony, just us, the elite, Cynthia and Steven, and the other three Champions, Ash, Wallace and Alder."

Paul was wondering where she was going with this, but decided it was best to leave her to it.

"So anyway afterwards I thought it would be best to go and congratulate Paul. It was late and almost everyone had left so we had had a bit much to drink…"

She paused again; she was actually starting to enjoy this.

"So we got talking and Paul was quite drunk at this point and he told me that he thought I was beautiful and that he had feelings for me but he didn't know how to show them. And things just went from there."

She beamed at the clapping her mother and Reggie were giving them, and ignored the death glare Paul was sending her.

Paul needed to calm down. They were just pretending…that was all. He kept reminding himself that over and over his head as he took a long sip of his glass of wine.

"So how many kids are you guys going to have?" Drew asked innocently.

Paul choked on his wine and started coughing and spluttering. Dawn looked extremely flustered at the mention and both of them tried to hastily pull themselves together.

"What?" Paul managed to get out, the burning sensation in his throat still there as she tried to cool it with a sip of water.

"Well you're married, surely you've thought about it," Drew pressed knowingly.

"Um…well we are both at the peak of our careers. At this point we will not be having kids," Paul said firmly.

Dawn looked at him with pursed lips but agreed none the less. Paul noticed her disappointed expression and rolled his eyes, "Yet," he added, "well will not be having kids…yet."

Dawn's smile was so wide Paul thought her mouth might split in two.

"Well I can't wait to have grand kids!" Johanna said, clapping her hands excitedly.

"Yeah and it would be awesome to have someone to play with Lizzie." Reggie and Maylene had had a daughter who was now four years old. She was very mature for her young age and above all else, she adored Paul.

"Oh that's right, Lizzie is all Paul talks about," Dawn added in cutely, Paul rolled his eyes, knowing that she was bluffing. They were almost getting away with this.

After dinner had ended, the two stood outside, waving goodbye to their four visitors.

After ushering Dawn's mum into a cab, the two let out a relieved breath.

As their eyes connected Dawn couldn't help but laugh, what an eventful day. Even Paul cracked a smirk and they stood there in a comfortable silence, debating their next move.

"So, now what?" Paul asked.

Dawn was looking at him with doe eyes in the moonlight, her navy hair swaying gently in the breeze. She was at least a head shorter than him, even with heels on.

Letting out a shaky breath, he ran a hand through his hair and looked to the side, trying to shake the thoughts he was having.

Then something odd happened, Dawn started moving closer to him.

As he was about to jump back she whispered, "Drew and May are watching."

So he let her come closer, and he let his hands take hold of her hips, pressing her flush against him.

He'd be lying if he said he didn't love the way her body melted into his, like they were meant to fit together.

Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the way the moonlight was shining onto her face, maybe it was feelings that he would never admit to…whatever the reason, he allowed her to reach up and kiss him. And most surprisingly, he allowed himself to enjoy it.

After a few moments of her soft lips pressing against his own, he deepened this kiss, allowing his tongue to intertwine with hers. She let out a soft moan as she leaned into the kiss.

Then she pulled away abruptly.

"Okay they are gone. Man we are good. Can you believe they bought it? We should be actors, Paul. That was so funny, don't you think?"

An odd feeling emerged from the base of his stomach. Was he disappointed? Surely not

He wouldn't let himself dwell on it as he pushed it far away from his mind, "Yeah. Hilarious."

He turned to leave and she called out to him, "Don't forget we have to apartment shop tomorrow! I'll call you in the morning."

With that he turned slowly to watch her get in a cab. He sighed, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding as he walked through the dark streets to his hotel room. This was going to be a long six months.


	2. Chapter 2

"Aww Paul I love it! It's everything I've ever dreamed of!"

"No. Absolutely not." Paul crossed is arms, keeping a stern expression on his face. He was not budging on this one. Nope.

The two had been shopping for apartments all morning, with Paul currently living in Veilstone, Dawn had expected him to move to Hearthome, where she currently resided. He had said yes, only agreeing because he would have to move into the city eventually as the amount of functions and events he had to attend there was getting ridiculous.

Simply put, it would be easier for him in the long run.

Currently, the two were arguing over which apartment to get. Dawn wanted something big with bedrooms for their Pokemon.

Paul was one hundred percent against this idea. His Pokemon did not need separate rooms.

"Okay well…what if we just had four rooms. Maybe we could choose that one we saw earlier this morning? You know, the one with that old lady downstairs?"

Paul cringed at the thought, "Or we could just keep looking."

Dawn shrugged, "Fine then."

"Fine."

"Good."

"Good."

"Ughhh you're driving me insane already!" Dawn huffed and led Paul down the stairs.

He smirked as he followed her. He was enjoying getting her all riled up.

After another hour of inspecting apartments they were about to give up, finding that they clearly couldn't agree on anything.

"It says here there is one more on Hearthome Road. Let's check that out and then we'll stop for the day," Dawn said as she read her copy of Home Buyers magazine.

Paul nodded but stayed silent, he wasn't sure if they were ever going to come to an agreement.

Walking up the steps he smirked as he watched her hips swing from side to side in front of him. As much as he hated to admit it, she was _very_ attractive. It was an odd thing for Paul to think as he was generally not interested in the opposite sex or dating, opting to focus on his career first.

But even more so, he found that it was just so rare for any woman to maintain his attention long enough for him to actually be interested.

He'd never admit it out loud but one reason why he actually went out of his way to spend time with Dawn was because she wasn't like other girls. She had never once let him have his way without putting up a fight, and if he was really being honest with himself, part of him enjoyed the challenge.

Sighing, he walked in behind Dawn through the lobby and they were directed to the elevator.

It turned out this apartment was on the top floor. Once the elevator made a 'ding' sound, the doors opened and they both stepped out to see a rather large apartment with glass windows surrounding one entire side.

On the opposite side were painted grey walls and a rather modern kitchenette.

Paul winced as he heard Dawn squeal loudly beside him.

"Oh please can we get this one. Please Paul it's just so pretty!"

She was jumping up and down, clapping her hands together and he had to try really hard to keep a straight face and not allow himself to be affected by her infectious smile.

"Fine. Let's just get this one and get it over with."

"Really?!" Dawn squealed, "This place is so cool!"

After finishing signing their papers, they exited the building together and walked back towards Dawn's current apartment.

"You know I was thinking, we should probably fill our Pokemon in on this."

Paul looked at her incredulously, "Why?"

"Because they are my best friends and they'll want to know. Plus they will be living with you and your Pokemon now so it's important that they understand why."

He rolled his eyes and they walked the rest of the way in a rather comfortable silence.

Entering her small apartment in a quiet street on the outskirts of Hearthome, he noticed that she had a lot more furniture and personal effects than he had. He couldn't dwell on it for long though as Dawn's voice cut through his thoughts.

"C'mon out everyone!" Dawn beamed as her six Pokemon appeared in front of her.

"Guys there is someone I want you to become a bit more acquainted with….this is Paul who you would have all seen at some point. And well…we are – "

"Wait a minute," Paul rolled his eyes as he released his Pokemon too. The twelve creatures sat staring at each other, and Electivire and Pachirisu let off small sparks at each other whilst growling.

Buneary on the other hand bounced excitedly over to Weavile who crossed his arms offering a 'hmph' in his own language. She looked disappointed.

"Piplup, Pip piplup," The small Pokemon waved its little arms with purpose as it pointed to Paul's Pokemon.

Dawn sweat dropped, "They are our visitors Piplup so be nice. Now as I was saying, Paul and I have recently decided to get married. This means you will all be spending a bit of time together so we thought it would be good to start now."

Dawn's Pokemon were very excited at the prospect of making new friends, but Paul's Pokemon stood their ground, much like their very proud owner.

"Tor, Torterra," Paul's eyes widened and Dawn was sure she saw a faint blush on his cheeks as he turned away from her.

"No. We will not be having eggs."

Dawn giggled at this, "Eggs…no we don't have eggs."

She walked over to her small kitchen and grabbed out a few containers of Poffins.

"Okay guys, here are some of my famous Poffins! I bet you guys would really like these."

She started handing them out to Paul's Pokemon before giving the rest to her own.

Paul watched on skeptically as he never spoilt his Pokemon with treats. But sure enough as they hesitantly took bites, all of his Pokemon lit up at the prospect of treats and started to talk with a few of Dawn's Pokemon.

"See, I told you it wasn't so bad!" She pointed her finger into his chest as she said this and he couldn't help but smirk at how childish she could be.

"Yeah yeah, whatever."

They stood in silence, leaning against her kitchen counter and watched their Pokemon for a while.

Buneary was trying really hard to get Weavile's attention, who was slowly backing away from her.

"Aww I think Buneary likes your Weavile Paul! That's so cute. Imagine if they had little babies together!"

He groaned, "That's not going to happen. He clearly isn't interested."

Dawn frowned. Maybe they just needed to spend a bit more time together to give the two Pokemon a chance to warm up to each other.

Torterra came slowly walking over to them and Dawn reached over to play with its leaves kind of massaging them as she went.

He let out a cry of happiness as he nuzzled Dawn's other hand. She laughed loudly and Paul couldn't help but watch in awe as she turned his most prized, proud Pokemon into goo just at her touch.

"Why don't we play a game?" All the Pokemon cheered as Dawn led them outside and they followed her to the park about 50 metres from her place.

Paul followed in mild amusement watching all of them immediately warm up to Dawn. He guessed it was just because she bribed them with food.

"Let's play hide and seek! Piplup and I will come and find you all. Paul has to play too!"

"I am not playing hide and seek."

"Okay Paul and Piplup will come to find the rest of us then. You guys have to count to twenty…lets go!"

He didn't have time to protest as she and all their Pokemon ran off in different directions. He sighed as he looked down at the glaring penguin Pokemon.

"What now?"

"Pip Piplup Pip".

"Why would I hurt Dawn?"

"Pip Piplup."

He frowned as he got the gist of what the Pokemon was saying. Piplup thought that he wasn't good enough for her.

"Look I know you don't like me…or probably trust me after all these years but I promise I won't hurt her."

Piplup looked skeptical and blew a small bubble at Paul.

"Okay well what if we make a deal. If I hurt her then you get to hurt me?" He couldn't understand why he was trying this hard, but he didn't want her best friend to hate him. That would definitely make for a long six months.

Piplup nodded triumphantly and started walking to look for its companions. They had let them have well over 20 seconds to hide.

He actually laughed out loud when he saw Pachirisu and Electivire sitting on a bench in hats and sunglasses reading the newspaper. Dawn must have helped them all find hiding spots.

"Okay we found you two."

They both sweat dropped and started yelling at each other, clearly their disguises weren't good enough at this point.

Piplup found Buneary hiding behind a small shrub and the two saw Weavile and some of their other Pokemon hiding in the water of a small pond. They weren't hard to find, especially considering that they had to breathe eventually.

Magmortar was probably the easiest to find out of everyone as he couldn't stand too close to any of the trees. Instead he opted for standing out in the open and didn't seem surprised when Paul and Piplup found him.

The only two left to find were Dawn and Torterra.

"Hey Piplup," Paul whispered to the Pokemon, leaning over to put his hands on his knees. I think I know where they are.

Piplup leaned in closer as he whispered and they both nodded when they had finalised the plan.

Both wandered over to a nearby group of trees which were swaying in the light afternoon breeze.

Next, Piplup blew up a whirlpool and sent it flying towards the trees. A few seconds later they felt Torterra stomp away and heard a high pitched squeal.

Just in the nick of time Paul caught Dawn as Torterra accidentally knocked her off his back.

"Nice try there, troublesome."

She giggled sheepishly, "Well what better way to hide a tree Pokemon than as an actual tree."

He smirked as he put her down on the ground. She was absolutely soaked from head to toe, and Paul surprised them both as he shrugged off his jacket and handed it to her.

"Th-thanks P-Paul," She stuttered between shivers.

"Torr!" They heard the giant Pokemon yell as the small Piplup came running into Dawn's arms out of the earth Pokemon's wrath.

After Paul called off Torterra they returned all of their Pokemon and started to walk back so Dawn could warm up.

"I guess now we are going to have to organise a dinner with Cynthia and Steven to make this all official in their eyes," Paul suggested as he rolled his eyes. He was not looking forward to this at all.

"Yeah I guess."

As they entered her apartment again he watched as she put her heater on and grabbed two towels for them.

"Here," she said gently, passing him the towel.

"I don't need that."

"You're all wet though from when you caught me…you need a towel or you will catch a cold."

"Well I don't need it."

She pursed her lips, taking a deep breath, "I don't get why you have to be so difficult all the time. Why can't you just be normal."

"Well why do you have to be so happy all the time?"

"Me? It's better than being grumpy every second of the day!"

"I am not grumpy."

"Yes you are!"

"I am not."

"Arghh! This is getting us nowhere," Dawn admitted, exasperation seeping through her voice.

"Yeah…I should get going."

"But it's late…you'll never make it home before it gets dark."

"I was just going to get a hotel room."

"Oh," Dawn said quietly. She paused as though she was pondering something before continuing, "You could stay here."

He looked at her seriously for a moment and she couldn't help but feel a little nervous, "The couch isn't much, but it's better than the floor."

He smirked as he figured he could annoy her for a while with this, "But we're married now. Married people should share a bed. You know, what's mine is yours."

Dawn flushed red at the thought, "We are not doing that."

"Well it's not as if we didn't already have sex."

Dawn's voice squeaked, "We don't know that we did."

He gave her a pointed look, "Yeah alright we did," she admitted.

Crossing his arms and leaning casually against the bench, he smirked at her for a long time. He could tell he was embarrassing her by the look of shock and the light flush of her cheeks.

"Fine then. You can sleep next to me in my bed."

"Fine."

"Great!" She feigned excitement as she turned and stormed off to the shower.

He smirked at her retreating figure as he decided to look around her place.

She had a heap of photo frames on a nearby table and he bent over slightly to inspect each one.

There were heaps of photos of her and Ash and Brock. He frowned as he looked at one with her and a guy he recognised as Kenny. He had his arms around her, pulling her close and she was smiling brightly to the camera.

As he put the frame back down he noticed a smaller frame at the back. It looked rather old and a bit worn at the edges.

Inside the glass were two tickets. The print had faded a little so he had to bring it up nice and close to read it.

_Sinnoh League_

_April 31__st__ – __2pm_

_Row 52 – Seat J_

_Paul Shinji vs – Eric Norton_

This was one of the last battles he had back in the days he first competed in the Sinnoh League.

The next ticket was sitting slightly above the first. His eyes widened as he read it.

_Sinnoh League_

_May 3__rd__ – __12pm_

_Row 21 – Seat A_

_Ash Ketchum vs – Paul Shinji_

Paul remembered that day so well. How could he forget? It was the day that changed everything for him; the _battle_ that changed everything for him.

He lightly ran his fingers over the tickets as he wondered why Dawn would have these framed on display in her house.

He could understand her having Ash's ticket but his? It didn't make sense.

Maybe it was just her first time at a League Competition and she thought she would keep the tickets she had as a reminder.

He ran his hand through his hair as he thought back to those days. Oh how he had changed since then. His relationship with Ash had definitely improved. While he would not consider themselves friends, they had to at times liaise with each other to discuss inter regional affairs.

There were also a few times through a year where they would be required to attend functions with each other and show unity between the regions.

Looking back, it was a day that Paul couldn't regret because it had taught him so much and although he was still tough on his Pokemon, he had learnt to appreciate them in ways he had never understood until that day.

"Hey you ready for bed? I'm pretty tired."

He quickly placed the frame back down and turned towards her voice.

Dawn had emerged from the bathroom in a silky light pink slip. He breathed in sharply when he noticed that she wasn't wearing a bra, and inwardly slapped himself when he started to wonder what kind of underwear she had on.

She coughed awkwardly and he realised he had been staring unintentionally. Could she really blame him though? He was about to get into bed with an attractive girl who was practically half naked.

She smirked and he realised he was still staring.

_Two can play that game._

He casually walked towards her and slipped his t-shirt over his head. Moving towards the room he walked directly towards her until he was only inches from her face, towering over her because of his height.

Then he slowly undid the button on his jeans and slid them down to reveal his black underwear shorts.

She nearly drooled when he reached his arms high above his head and stretched, smirking the entire time.

"Dawn?" He called innocently and she immediately snapped out of her reverie.

"Huh? Yeah?"

"You're in the door way, could you jump out of the way?"

She stumbled out of the way and watched him walk through to her room, hopping into the side of the bed that was closest to the adjoining ensuite.

"Hey that's my side!" She yelled childishly.

"And?"

"And it's my room, my rules…so it's my side and you're going to have to move."

"What if I don't want to?" By this point he was sitting up slightly against her head rest, his arm casually draped over the top of his head.

"Well…you…you have to. Please Paul?" She asked with puppy dog eyes.

"Make me."

At this her demeanour completely changed and she realised he was just messing with her.

Well there was no way she was letting him get the best of her.

"Aw…but…please?" She slowly crawled onto the bed so that she was on all fours beside him. She was well aware that the top of her slip was hanging low enough for him to get a good view of her body from above.

As she drew nearer to him she brought her lips up to his ear and whispered, "What do I have to do to get you to move?"

On the outside he was putting on a calm front, but on the inside he was trying his best not to grab her and repeat what they started the few nights previous.

He couldn't though. That would be letting her win.

"I'm sure you could think of a few things?" He suggested, arrogance seeping through his voice.

She looked downwards, cutely biting her lip before looking up at him through her hair.

"Uh-uh," She nodded, "I already have a few things in mind."

As he watched her moving closer and closer to him he wondered what it would be like if this was real; if she actually wanted this.

He frowned and turned away, "Maybe we should get to bed. Here you can sleep this side."

In one swift movement he picked her up and placed her where he was seconds before and rolled to the other side.

Because she didn't want this and neither did he. At least that's what he told himself over and over in his mind to try and convince himself it was real.

Dawn sat there with her mouth slightly hanging open, shocked at the abrupt change in the atmosphere.

"Paul I was…we were just…"

"Joking. I know. Let's just sleep."

She knew the conversation was closed after that. He had his back turned to her and he clearly wasn't up for any further discussions. Frowning, she lay down; her back to him as she thought about what she had done wrong.

It was a long while before either of them slept, both having too much on their minds. But they both lay still, not wanting to discuss their lack of sleep or what had just happened between them.

It was going to be a long six months.


End file.
